In Hazard by Richard Hughes

In Hazard, written by Richard Hughes, is a well researched, often riveting tale of the Archimedes, a steamer, who became entangled in 4 days of a monstrous hurricane while out at sea. The storm eats away at the vessel & the strength of its crew, which are unable to rest or properly eat. Perpetually overwhelmed, sinking is a very grave possibility.

In the introduction, I found that Richard Hughes interviewed a ship’s crew that went through a similar ordeal & also sailed on ships to learn every aspect needed to craft a truthful fiction of a modern ship confronted by such battering.

Where the story strays is later on, when he began to almost randomly give biographies of the crew. If this had been the norm throughout, I would have felt better about the stories being often unrelated to anything regarding the storm. I found myself wanting to get past them as urgently as possible & get back to the main story. On the positive side, they were, as was the entire saga, well written, very entertaining, & easily read.

Due to the biographies, I will have to rate it 3 ½ out of 5, meaning I enjoyed it better than average, but will most likely never read it again.

~Finished 09/09/11, a Friday afternoon


(Cover art by Tom Ballenger)